Untold Feelings
by MinnieMay
Summary: A new demon forces the AI team to deal with their feelings for each other (W/F, C/A, slight G/F) CHAPTER 4 ADDED *Complete*
1. Chapter One Research

Title: Untold Feelings   
Chapter: 1 - Research   
Author: Minnie-May   
Distribution: Archive permission granted to: WNW, Bookish, Gifted. All others please ask.   
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Angel (not even Wesley ;_;) they are all owned by Joss Whedon and the fine folks of Mutant Enemy…..lucky….   
Summary: A new demon forces the AI team to deal with their feelings for each other (W/F, C/A, slight G/F)   
Rating: PG-13   
Feedback: Yes please! Send to: sweet_senshi@hotmail.com   
Notes: This takes place sometime after Billy in Season three of Angel. The events with Darla and Connor have not taken place yet. 

****

UNTOLD FEELINGS

Chapter One- RESEARCH

"Gah" Cordelia groaned, slamming shut the dusty volume sitting in front of her and glaring over at Wesley. "Since when am I research girl anyway? I thought that was your department" she commented, pushing the book towards Fred and pulling another one off the pile. "Well except for the girl part," Cordelia said. Then continued, arching an eyebrow, "Well as far as we know."

"Thank you Cordelia, feel free to challenge my masculinity whenever you feel like it" Wesley commented dryly, looking up briefly from his book and giving Cordelia a pointed glare. Behind the thick volume in front of her, Fred giggled.

"I think it's kinda fun actually, the research," Fred commented, leaning her elbows on the table. Both Cordelia and Gunn screwed up their faces and made groaning noises. "I mean look at all the cool things you can find. I just found a demon that can shrink stuff and another that can make stuff really big. And I think there's a dimension where tuna doesn't exist." Fred babbled. By this time everyone was staring at her, Wesley and Gunn looking amused and Cordelia shaking her head. "Well I thought it was interesting" she mumbled opening the book back up.

"Those are some very, um, interesting observations Fred", Wesley commented with a smile. "But we may want to keep on task here. We're looking for a demon that can warp the time space continuum."

"So Angel can go fight it and kill it?" Fred asked excitedly. Cordelia had never met anyone before that got excited when Angel was going off to kill something. Then again the whole "justice league" thing was new to Fred. She had never had to deal with all the unpleasant side effects of being in the business, of losing friends and giving up your whole life to the cause. Cordelia snorted, 'seriously' she thought, 'how long has it been since I've even had a good shopping trip?'

"Speaking of Angel, where is our resident brooding vampire?" Cordelia asked, trying to pass a page with head eating demons as fast as humanly possible. "I mean he's missing out on all the fun research."

"Didn't Angel say he was trying to find out what the word on the street was? See what the demons and vamps knew? Because I could have done that" Gunn said, sounding melancholy. "Ewww what is up with this demon's head?" he asked shoving the book away from him. Fred peered over at the page and made a face. Cordelia decided she didn't even want to go there. 

"Yes you probably could have done that, except for the not being a vampire or demon part. Angel is best for that area of work... he blends in better" Wesley said, rearranging his glasses and looking onto the page that Gunn had pushed so quickly away from himself. Wesley made a disgusted face and quickly closed the book, handing Gunn another one. "Next book shall we?" 

"Goody" Gunn muttered, opening the book and looking all the world like a sullen child. 

"Kinda like a chameleon…with the blending. Although not the reptile part..." Fred trailed off and then looked around her. "Right?"

"Hmmm" Wesley asked, obviously having blocked the world out in his research.

"I think Fred just asked if Angel was a big 'ol lizard" Cordelia said, giving Fred a weird look. Strange, strange girl. 

"Well the straight answer to that would be a no but there are other alternate dimensions in which..." Wesley trailed off when he noticed the rest were looking at him funny. "-In which all of you could care less," he finished off. "And we should get back to our work.... the task at hand." Wesley opened up another book and Cordelia sighed. She idly wondered what Angel was doing; it had to be more fun than this. 

****

"Ow!" Angel ducked as the axe whizzed over his head, cleanly cutting the air just a fraction of an inch above his head. "Boys, boys, can't we talk this out?" Angel pleaded. His right arm was already bleeding where one of the two axe wielding demons had caught him by surprise. These things were tough, even when you were properly prepared to face one of them. Which Angel, clearly, wasn't.

He had spent most of the night in a fruitless chase of information about the newest creature that the Angel Investigations group had to face. About a week earlier a couple of kids from the nearby campus had gone missing without a trace. A few days later their bodies were recovered, little more than lifeless husks, zapped of all their life force. Wesley had guessed that it had something to do with a demon that took people into a time fold to feed off their life force. So while the rest of the group was checking out the sources back at the Hyperion Angel had decided that he would see what the word on the street about the incident was. Which was basically that there was no word. 

Until now that is. Angel had just exited a demon bar on the seedier side of LA. The bar was populated by the worst kind of demons, the lowest of the low on the nasty food chain. He had figured if there was any information, one of these demons would be able to help him out. No one had seemed to know what he was talking about though, so he was just leaving the bar by the side exit that let out into an alley when he was attacked. He was hoping desperately that he had struck a nerve, maybe asked a question that one of these demons didn't want to hear. Which obviously brought him to the hard part of this whole battle: if he wanted any information he was going to have to keep one of them alive. Not looking all that promising when they were both holding giant axes and wielding razor sharp claws. 

Angel moved quickly, morphing into his vampire visage and speeding quickly towards the first demon. It swung the axe at him but this time he was ready for it, grabbing it between the palms of his hands he wretched it from the demon's grasp. He was about to use it to finish the demon off when the first pile dived into him, narrowly missing impaling him on it's sharp claws. Although he doubted it would have minded impaling him. Angel rolled out from underneath the demon with amazing speed and used the axe he still gripped tightly to lopped off the demon's head. 

He turned towards the second, now unarmed demon and pointed it's own weapon back in it's face. The demon glanced nervously down the alley as if considering escape when Angel took a closer step so that the pointy tip of the axe was right over the demon's throat.

"I think I have a few questions I need answering. I'm guessing you might be able to help me out with that?" Angel asked, less a question and more a statement. The demon let out a squeal and then nodded, never taking it's eyes off the axe pointed at it's neck. 

"Ok," Angel said taking a deep, unneeded breath and letting it out in a low whoosh. "What do you know about the disappearance of those college kids?"

****

"Gunn snores loud" Fred commented, sitting beside Wesley and flipping through another mind numbing demonology book. How Wesley could look at these all day Fred didn't understand. The initial trill of finding out about a demon that could make your legs turn to jelly with a glare had worn off after the first, well three hours or so. 

Wesley grinned and stared over at the prone forms of Cordelia and Gunn, both dead asleep on the books they had been using for research. Fred was right indeed, Gunn did snore loud. His friend kept on interrupting his thought threads just when he thought he was getting somewhere, but he didn't have the heart to wake the two of them up. 

"Thank you very much for your help Fred, but you don't have to keep on researching. You've certainly done enough these past few hours" Wesley commented, glancing over at Fred. Not that he minded the fact that she was helping him work. Nor the fact that after Gunn and Cordelia had nodded off Fred had dragged her chair so that she was sitting next to him. He didn't mind at all.

"Ohh that's ok. I like helping" Fred commented, grinning up at Wesley. Wes had been skittish at best with her since what had happened with Billy and she felt for the first time she was getting somewhere with him. When their hands had brushed each other reaching for a book he hadn't even jerked back like he had become practiced at doing. Baby steps, Fred thought to herself. Like when I used to try to come out of my cave but I wasn't sure it was clear and so I used to have to just walk a little further each day. Or when I kept trying to remember what the words that I read were but I'd only be able to remember one or two and usually not in the right order. 

The opening door snapped Fred out of her thoughts about Pylea and she turned to see Angel come trooping through the door, looking much the worse for wear. His duster was cut up on the right shoulder and blood was seeping through the thick fabric. He looked a bit beaten as well, a small bruise forming at the corner of his mouth. He lifted the axe he was carrying to show it to Wesley.

"Got an axe", he commented, walking over to the weapons cabinet and depositing it. 

"Are you ok?" Fred asked worriedly, staring at the way he didn't seem to be walking with the usual Angel gait. 

"Nothing that won't heal" Angel commented, staring down at the sleeping forms of Gunn and Cordelia. "What happened to those two?" he asked, indicating them with a sweep of his arm as he began to peel off the dirty duster. 

"Ohhh well they found the research so enrapturing that they felt the need to take a nap in the middle of it. Fred has been a big help in assisting me though" Wesley put in, smiling at Fred. 

Angel grinned, "I'm sure she has." Then with an evil grin he crept up behind Cordelia and put his mouth close to her ear. "CORDY!" he bellowed. 

Cordy sat bolt upright with a loud squeak and turned around quickly, breathing rapidly. 

"ANGEL! Oh my God what are you trying to do to me? I almost had a heart attack. Now I know you don't have to worry about those because of the whole 'heart doesn't beat' thing but some people do you-" Cordelia trailed off for a moment and then cut herself off. "You're hurt."

"I'll be fine" Angel shrugged off his injury and then made himself a mental note. Shrugging: not something you want to be doing. His right arm was blazing where the axe had made contact. 

"No you won't, I'm wrapping that thing up right now" Cordelia said, getting up and strechting, then grabbing Angel by his good arm and dragging him off. 

Gunn lifted his head and looked around in confusion. "Wassit?" he asked incoherently. 

"Angel's back" Fred replied. 

"Oh" Gunn said, lowering his head back on his arms and resuming sleep. A second passed before he lifted his head again. "Ohhh right. What'd he find out?" he asked sheepishly. 

"Actually we haven't found out yet" Wesley said, staring in the direction Cordelia had pulled Angel. "Angel was wounded so Cordy took it upon herself to patch him up." At that moment the two of them reappeared, Cordy carrying more bandages than would be needed to care for an entire army. 

"Ok sit" Cordelia commanded Angel who complacently dropped down on a chair near the rest of the group as Cordy broke out a pack of bandages and some gauze. 

"So Angel, did you find any information that would be helpful to our....research" he asked, pointedly looking at Gunn and Cordy as he said the last word. Gunn rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish while Cordy just wrapped a bandage around Angel's arm as if nothing out of the ordinary had been implied. Heck, anyone would fall asleep after reading that, she was only human. 

"Actually yea, I found some stuff out. But it doesn't really make sense," Angel commented, wincing as Cordy absently pulled the bandage a little too tight. "Well you see I was at a demon bar, trying to shake up some information but no on seemed to know anything. So I go to leave and I get attacked by these huge demons with axes. So I fight them" Angel moved one of his hands in a slashing movement, "they were really hardy. In fact I had to-" he begun, really getting into the story.

"I know how you love reliving the glory Angel but well, I don't care so could you skip the monster bashing part" Cordelia cut in, finishing the bandaging. She gave her work a quick once over and then gave it a proud pat. 

"Fine" Angel muttered sullenly, then got back to the story. "So anyway I got one of the demons cornered...I killed the other one with their own axe and I had this one totally cornered" Cordelia glared at him. "Not that it matters" he put in.

"So did the demon tell you anything of interest?" Wesley asked, leaning forward in his seat. 

"Yea like what this oggly boggly is doing around here and possibly how to kill it?" Gunn asked. "Because that would be really convenient."

"Well it wasn't that detailed but it did spill a few things" Angel commented, making himself more comfortable in the chair. "Apparently this thing feeds off love."

"You mean like 'love of evil' love?" Gunn asked, looking confused. 

"No like the actual kind" Angel replied, stapling his fingers in front of him. "I thought it was pretty weird too. But Wes you were right about the dimensional thing, it turns out the thing pulls it's prey into some kind of universal cub hole and then sucks the life out of them."

"Ew" Fred and Gunn commented at once. Fred was looking a little worried, probably because alternate dimensions would remind her of what she went through in Pylea. Wesley felt the strong need to comfort her in some way but wasn't sure what to do. 

"Does any of this mean something to you?" Angel directed at Wesley. "Did you see anything about this in the books? Because I've never heard of anything like this before." 

"Well there are many different demons that feed off different emotions. I suppose it's safe to assume that there would be one that feeds off love as well, seeing as it's such a strong emotion" Wesley shrugged slightly, glancing quickly over to Fred. "But it does narrow down the research quite a bit. "

Cordelia and Gunn suddenly got looks on their faces as if they had seen a ghost. Cordelia quickly grabbed onto Angel's arm and Gunn hurried over, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder. 

"But Angel needs us right? To help with the information gathering and umm stuff" Cordelia said, trying to pretend like she was sorry that she was missing out on research. 

"Yea dog, there has to be some people need saving or thrashing. We can find more stuff out about this demon right?" Gunn put in hopefully. 

"Well" Angel said, taking a small step back from Gunn and Cordelia. Cordy didn't take the hint however and stayed hanging on his arm. Weirder yet, Angel didn't really care all that much. "I was thinking we could get the police report on the victims of this thing, see if that give us any details."

"Well then, I'm your girl!" Cordelia said pleasantly, nodding her agreement. "Police here we come!"

"Yea same here, I've got your back" Gunn said, slapping Angel's back with a very 'we're all buddies here' expression. It's amazing the treatment you get when you can be an excuse to get out of research, Angel thought. 

Gunn grinned like a fool. Thank God, he thought to himself, if he had to stare at any more demon books he thought he was going to go crazy. He turned and looked back at Wesley and Fred, sitting side by side by a pile of books. 'Poor suckers' he thought watching as Wesley patted Fred's hand and handed her another book. 'Or maybe I'm the sucker' he thought.

"Fred and I will be fine, hopefully we'll be able to find something on this demon" Wesley said, all smiles. 'I'm sure you will' Gunn thought bitterly, noticing for the first time how close the two were seated to each other. 

"You know maybe I should stay here and help with the research" Gunn said, grabbing a book from in front of Wesley and sliding it down to his side of the table. 

"I'm sure Fred and I will be able to manage fine on our own" Wesley commented, pulling the book back towards himself. Gunn pulled the book back across the table with a controlled smile.

"Well you know what they say, three heads better than one and all that English" Gunn commented, about to pull out a seat for himself. 

"Better than one" Wesley said, pulling the book back over, "not two. As you can see we'll be fine."

Fred blinked as she watched the exchange, having a feeling they were talking about more than research but definitely missing out on the subtext. Angel and Cordelia, however, not so slow on the subtext. Cordelia turned and grinned at Angel, who was trying to hide his amusement.

"But I could help!" Gunn protested, continuing the tug of war with the book.

"By drooling all over my books? I doubt it" Wesley commented. Gunn turned bright red and was obviously searching for something cutting to say when Angel cut in.

"Gunn, maybe you should check with your old crew, see what they know about this whole thing." Usually Angel wouldn't cut in on something that was none of his business but he had the feeling that could have gone on all day.

"Fine" Gunn grumbled unhappily. Wesley flashed a triumphant smile, which he tried to hide behind a book. "You wanna come Fred?" Gunn offered feebly, already knowing the answer.

"Th-that's ok" Fred stuttered. She could still clearly remember the last time she had met Gunn's old friends, and she really didn't want to repeat the experience any time soon.

"Ok then we'll be off!" Cordy said, dragging Angel to the door. "Good luck with the research you two," Cordy commented, directing a wink at Wesley. 

As the two left the building Wesley heard Angel ask if they could stop at Cordy's place so that she could 'get changed'. Wes wondered idly what that was all about but decided it was probably best he not dwell on it.

"Well I'll be off then..." Gunn trailed off, grabbing a weapon from the weapons cabinet. "But I'll be back soon" Gunn said, giving a seething look. "For the research" he added, opening the door and stepping out.

As the door closed Fred turned and looked at Wesley, smiling in that way that made his heart go all fluttery. 

"Guess it's just the two of us" Fred said cheerily, picking up a book and flipping through it.

Wesley just flushed and nodded. "Guess so."

****

TBC


	2. Chapter Two Disguise

Title: Untold Feelings   
Chapter: 2 – Disguise   
Author: Minnie-May   
Distribution: Archive permission granted to: WNW, Bookish, Gifted. All others please ask.   
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Angel (not even Wesley ;_;) they are all owned by Joss Whedon and the fine folks of Mutant Enemy…..lucky….   
Summary: A new demon forces the AI team to deal with their feelings for each other (W/F, C/A, slight G/F)   
Rating: PG-13   
Feedback: Yes please! Send to: sweet_senshi@hotmail.com   
Notes: This takes place sometime after Billy in Season three of Angel. The events with Darla and Connor have not taken place yet. 

****

UNTOLD FEELINGS

Chapter Two- DISGUISE

"Come on, no one really dresses this way" Cordelia complained, trying to pull down the skin tight dress that had hiked up on her hips. The two stood in the shadows of the alley across from the Los Angeles precinct of the police station, discussing strategy.

"Yes they do" Angel countered. He noticed the way that Cordelia was staring at him and cleared his throat. "We do live in LA you know." Cordelia rolled her eyes, she had just went to a very scary mental place. 

"I just don't understand how this is going to help us get any information" Cordelia stated, taking in her whole outfit with a sweep of her hand. 

Cordy was totally hooked out, tall, tight length pleather boots came within a couple inches of the short, short, short skirt on the skin tight, black slinky dress she was wearing. 'Only it's not exactly slinky,' Cordelia thought distastefully, 'it's more like skanky.' Angel had insisted earlier that they stop at her place and pick out the sluttiest outfit Cordelia owned. One moment of fashion impairment and look what was happening to her. 'This is why I take shopping so seriously' Cordelia thought, allowing herself to give Angel the full on Queen C glare. Angel fidgeted slightly under the pressure of her glaze and turned to look at the police headquarters.

"It'll help you blend in" Angel commented, watching as a police officer dragged an angry woman dressed very much like Cordelia into the precinct. 

"Ok ok but they're just gonna let me walk around the station dressed like this, poking around in police files? I'd file that under 'unlikely'." 

"Well you'll just have to blend in with your surroundings, try not to look noticeable" Angel said. Angel cleared his throat and continued off the withering glare Cordelia shot at him. "Ok then, too noticeable. Just try to slip in, get the file out of the storeroom and get out" Angel instructed. "If you run into any trouble, call my cell and I'll bail you out."

"You might be doing that....literally. I swear Angel, if I end up in jail because of this you are so seriously never hearing the end of it" Cordelia mumbled, straightening up and trying to plan how she was going to get in and out without getting caught.

Angel smiled at her and patted her on the shoulder. "Good luck, I'll be right here," he said as he disappeared into the shadow of the alleyway. Cordelia snorted and turned towards the station, 'like that's gonna help'. 

Adjusting her dress a bit, Cordelia pushed her chin up and looked around as she walked toward the station. She was trying her best to keep her balance on the boots but she wasn't used to wearing heels that were that, well, skanky and she nearly tripped about three times before getting to the door. 

She opened the door and slipped in, trying her best not to make a scene as she almost bumped into someone passing. She quickly mumbled an apology and looked around the place. It was insanely crowded, people getting fingerprinted and waiting in cuffs to talk to officers. She had read about a crime wave in the papers but you really didn't believe it until you were right up in it. In fact, you didn't believe it until you were pretending to be part of it. 

As she walked past, a huge tattooed biker whistled appreciatively and she tried to contain the blush that was spreading across her cheeks. 'I can't believe this is my life' Cordelia thought, walking towards a big group of hookers on the other side of the room to blend better. 'Angel is going to die....again' she thought as one of the hookers gave her a dirty look. 

She slipped to the back of the crowd and let her eyes roam over the room, taking in the doors on either side of her. One of them was labeled 'Storeroom' which was where Angel assured her she would be able to find the file. Angel had given Kate a call where she now lived in New York, trying to start over, and asked about where they would be able to find some of the more unexplained files. Cordelia slipped between a few of the girls and gingerly opened the door, making sure once more that no one was looking her way. Everyone seemed to be preoccupied and she slipped quickly into the dark room and closed the door soundlessly behind her. "So far so good" Cordelia mumbled to herself. 

She pulled the flashlight that she had managed to jam in her small purse and walked as quietly over to the filing cabinet as was humanly possible when you were walking on boots that resembled stilts. She swept the beam of the flashlight over the room's scarce furniture and dusty filing cabinets. One of them was marked "Ongoing-Unexplained" and that was on the one that Cordelia crossed the room to get to. The drawer made a loud squeak as she pulled it free of it's resting place and she froze for a few seconds, hoping no one from outside had heard. After a few breathless seconds she thought it was probably safe to proceed and opened the drawer a little further, shinning the beam of the flashlight in to get a good look at the files. 

Cordelia flipped through the files quickly, making sure that she glanced at the titles of all the envelopes to see if it was about the missing kids on the campus. She finally hit gold when she found a file called "UCLA" that had pictures of the missing students and morgue reports. She made a face as she passed the pictures of the bodies and closed the file, stuffing it in her small purse and heading toward the door.

"I need a vacation" she mumbled as she opened up the door and slipped back into the crowd. Except now there wasn't a crowd; the hookers that had been standing by the doors were nowhere to be seen and she was staring face to face with a man in blue. 

"Excuse me, what were you doing in there?" he asked her skeptically, looking over her outfit. So much for fitting in, she was going to fit in so much that she would be behind bars. Angel couldn't have just found her a policewoman's uniform? Although on the other hand blue polyester wasn't exactly flattering for her skin tone. 

"I was....." Cordelia trailed off, trying desperately to think up something that would sound plausible. "Looking for a bathroom?" she said, but the excuse came out more like a question. 

The officer opened up his mouth to say something when a loud voice broke into their conversation. 

"There you are!" Angel said, standing behind Cordelia and smiling. Cordy let out a breath and stared thankfully over at Angel. "I've been looking all over for you." He turned an apologetic smile to the officer. "You know women, they love to see men in uniforms." 

Cordelia opened up her mouth to protest but Angel had her by the arm and was dragging her out of the station. The officer who had been so suspicious only moments before was now blushing and grinning like a fool. He was obviously not a seasoned veteran.

"Thanks for the help back there" Cordelia said gratefully. "Wait, on second thought, nevermind. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have been in there in the first place."

Angel looked over at Cordelia with a shamed expression on his face that made Cordy want to apologize. 

"Sorry about all of this, you did a great job though," Angel grinned at Cordelia who arched an eyebrow in response. "Did you find anything?"

Cordelia pulled the file out of her purse and waved it in front of Angel's face. "Of course I did, sleuth girl, that's me."

**** 

"AHA!" Wesley yelled in triumphant glee. The sudden, and loud, interruption of the silence that had fallen between Wesley and Fred as they worked startled Fred so badly that she jumped about a mile into the air with a squeak. Her elbow connected with the pile of books near her end of the table, sending books raining down to the floor with loud thumps. For a long moment the two of them stared at each other; Wesley looking rather embarrassed and Fred still looking startled. 

"Very sorry about that" Wesley said sheepishly as he bent to retrieve some of the fallen books and restack them neatly in the middle of the table. Fred was doing the same and for a moment their hands almost touched as they rebuilt the book pile. Fred shook off the sorry and leaned over to see the book Wesley was looking at. 

"That's ok, did you find something?" Fred asked, waiting expectantly for Wesley to spill the beans. 

"Yes, actually I found the demon we've been looking for" Wesley replied, pushing the book towards Fred and pointing to a picture surrounded by two or three paragraphs describing the demon.

Fred stared at the picture noting that the demon didn't look like someone you would want to meet in a dark alley. But then again who *would * want to meet a demon in a dark alley? From the illustrated picture in the book the demon seemed to be fairly tall with scaly skin and huge horns. Plus, who could forget the razor sharp claws that stuck out a mile from the demon's hands? It looked like standard demon farce to Fred, who had spent five years in a dimension where most people were green and scaly anyway. No, she decided, if there was anything remarkable about Mr. Demon it would be found in the text itself. So Fred buried herself in the book and read the few short paragraphs that worked as a description. When she looked up from the book Wesley noticed that she looked slightly perplexed.

"I thought Angel said that the demon went after love, but here it says the demon feeds from _unrequited love_" Fred said, tapping the book with her finger to add emphasis. 

"Well actually it makes a bit of sense when you look at things on the whole" Wesley began, settling back slightly in his seat. "You see love, in it's purest form, is the ultimate good. Evil has been working for centuries trying to taint that love, to turn it into something they can use. Unrequited love is much different than love because the feelings involved are different. In unrequited love there is more jealously, more bitterness and injury. It makes sense that an evil presence would find it suitable to feed from," Wes concluded. 

"Wow" Fred said, staring at Wesley in an utter state of wonderment. She really had no idea how he did it. He could always explain things so well, always say things so that she understood perfectly. Whenever she tried to explain something it always came out wrong, jumbled and incoherent. But Wesley was different; he was really amazing in that respect.

"Besides" Wesley muttered, turning beet red, "this marekiora demon matches the description we're looking for. It can control and open portals and the like" Wesley added, feeling immediately sorry he had brought it up when he saw the way Fred cringed at the mere mention of the word 'portal'. 

"Well that really does make sense ya know? The whole love thing that is. I mean like that time in the 8th grade when I really, _really _liked Joey Jameson and he said he liked me too. But then he went to the dance with Annabelle and…" Fred trailed off, noticing the way that Wesley was just staring at her. "…and well it's not really the same thing is it?"

"It's similar" Wesley assured her with a smile. Wesley felt his gaze sweeping from Fred to the door of the Hyperion, to the door of his office and then taking in the entire empty lobby. They were the only two people there, just he and Fred all alone. If there had ever been a better time to tell her that he cared for her now was it. He should tell her, he decided watching as she nervously pushed her hair out of her face and smiled at him. There had been complications in the past on this front, that was for sure. The whole idea of an office romance was still bad at best and with what had happened when Wesley had become infected with Billy thrown in the mix he thought he might never say anything. He still had no idea how Fred would ever be able to trust him again but he knew he couldn't just sit around and do nothing, just let the feelings fester. He had to clear the air, get everything out there. 'Now if only clearing the air was easy,' Wesley thought pensively.

"Fred, there's something I think we need to talk about" Wesley said, leaning in closer to Fred slightly. "Well at least something I need to talk to you about" he added, trying to make it sound less like it was business. 'Now we'll just discuss this, like mature adults' Wesley thought trying to figure out what to say next.

"What is it?" Fred asked, leaning forward as well so that the two of them were much closer now. 'Closeness, I hadn't planned on closeness' Wesley thought, staring into Fred's eyes. 'But I can still do this, I'm going to tell her' and with that Wesley put on his resolve face and opened his mouth slightly, about to jump right into it. 

Which, of course, was the exact moment the front door to the Hyperion slammed loudly closed. Fred turned around in her seat and smiled over at Gunn, giving a small wave. Wesley tried to surpress his grimace; Gunn wasn't a man of great timing. Gunn, in turn, looked at the two of them with slight suspicion as he descended the front stairs and made his way over to the table. 

"Back" he commented, changing hands on the two axes he was carrying so that he could drag a chair over to squeeze between Wesley and Fred. Both were forced move over to make room for him as he got himself comfortable in his chair. He placed the two axes in the middle of the table and glanced over from Wesley to Fred. 

"Hey! We found the demon!" Fred rushed her words together excitedly, pulling out the forgotten book with the details about the demon and pushing it over to Gunn. "Well actually Wes found the demon but I helped, sorta. See? Right there, the Mary Kay demon" Fred said, leaning over to point out where Gunn should look in the old dusty volume. Gunn picked up the book and then looked over at Fred with obvious puzzlement. 

"Mary Kay? Isn't that makeup?" Gunn asked.

"Actually the demon's name is marekiora" Wesley corrected. "Did your gang know anything about the disappearances?" Wesley asked, wishing Gunn had stayed to talk with said gang longer.

"Not really. Most of them had never even heard of the disappearances before. And the ones who had just thought it was good old fashion murder, not life sucking demons. Which, by the way, I've been wondering how do they suck the life out of you? Or would I want to know the answer?" Gunn asked, glancing over at Wesley.

"Probably not" Wesley replied, smiling slightly. The weapons in the middle of the table finally caught Wesley's eye and he realized that Gunn had only left the Hyperion with one weapon, not two. "Where did the extra axe come from?" he questioned.

"Present" Gunn simply replied, touching the handle with a finger. Wesley couldn't help but remember when Gunn's idea of a good weapon was a hubcap fashioned to a pipe. Wes smiled at the memory and shook his head slightly. 'Time's have changed.' 

Wesley picked up another book to continue his research since he still only knew the minimal basics on this demon. He wasn't even sure yet how to kill it, which was something rather important. As he turned a page he half listened as Fred and Gunn talked. Fred was laughing at one of Gunn's jokes but Wesley hadn't caught the punchline.

'I was so close to telling her' Wesley thought, glancing up at Gunn resentfully. 'So close.' 

The three were so busy that they didn't notice the dark presence that slid under the doorway. Nor did they notice it when it slipped silently across the lobby floor in their direction. In fact, they didn't notice until it was upon their table….and then it was too late.

**** 

"Gimme your coat" Cordelia ordered abruptly. Angel turned, surprised by the sudden start of conversation. The two had been walking in mostly silence since they had gotten out of the police station. When Angel didn't reply right away Cordelia turned around again and gave him an icy stare. "I. Said. Give. Me. Your. Coat," Cordelia said, annunciating each word as if Angel had gone stupid. 

"Right" Angel said, quickly shedding said-coat and handing it over to Cordelia. "Are you cold?" Angel asked, looking around the streets. Barely anyone was wearing a jacket, but Angel couldn't really tell if it would be cold or not. It was another advantage of being a vampire; not really big on the body temperature thing. 

"No, but people are staring at me" Cordelia replied, shrugging the coat onto her shoulders. Two girls they passed pointed at Cordelia and started whispering and giggling. A man on the other side of the street noticed her and whistled loudly. Angel looked over at Cordelia and grimaced, but Cordelia was handling all the attention remarkably well. She just kept walking, although now that he was noticing things it looked like her boots were killing her, never paying anyone any heed. 

"Sorry" he mumbled, glaring at a man hunched in a doorway so that he closed his mouth before the lewd comments even crossed his lips. 

"Oh no, the whole hooker thing? I think that's coming back. I can be the spokes model for Ho's are Us" Cordelia said, fixing Angel with a withering glare. 'Ok' Angel thought, 'maybe I've had better ideas.'

Silence once more descended upon the two and Angel stared along the street. He watched people walk back and forth, with no idea that there was a demon out there. Just going about their daily lives, totally unaware. He wondered sometimes if Cordelia wouldn't rather be one of those people, without mind splitting visions and demons coming out of the woodwork. 

It was while he was looking around that he noticed the dark shadow that slid along into the alleyway. The hair on the back of Angel's neck stood at attention and he knew immediately that it wasn't just a normal shadow. Something was there, and it was definitely not something good. Angel turned towards Cordelia and tapped her elbow, motioning with his head that there was something he needed to check out. 

Wordlessly Angel crept toward the mouth of the alley with Cordelia trailing behind him. He pressed up against the wall just outside the opening and slowly peered down the alley. He didn't see anything at first, just the dank alleyway with trash strewn across it. Then he noticed something by the big dumpster in the corner; something moved. 

Angel motioned for Cordelia to stay on the sidewalk while he entered the alley, walking cautiously towards whatever it was. The shadow rustled through the trash, moving farther away with every step that Angel took. Angel took another step forward and the thing slid another couple feet closer to the chain link fence at the end of the alley. "Don't be shy" Angel mumbled as he slid closer to whatever it was. He still hadn't gotten a good look at it and he wasn't sure if trying to face it weaponless was a good move. But it wasn't like he could just leave when he knew something was creeping around, possibly looking for some food. Possibly looking for some people to eat.

"What is it?" Cordelia hissed from directly behind him. Angel jumped a mile in the air and whipped around to see Cordelia peering around him at the dark mass. 

"Didn't I tell you to stay back there?" Angel hissed back, turning to make sure the shadow hadn't moved. It stayed in place, as if it were watching the two of them, waiting for something. Angel did not like this one bit. 

"Yea and since when have I started listening to you?" Cordelia said, turning her head to the side and staring at the shadow. "So why are we after the blob?"

"I'm not sure what it is. It could be dangerous, now go back on the sidewalk," Angel hissed, pointing back towards the opposite end of the alley. 

"No way! I'm staying here with you! You think I want to be propositioned again? Ick, been there, done that, did **not** buy the postcard" Cordelia said angrily, glaring at Angel as he turned to check the thing again. "Plus I might be able to help." Angel turned and gave her a skeptical look. "What I might!" Cordelia exclaimed, obviously hurt that Angel didn't think she could help. 

While the two were bickering the shadow slowly begun to expand, blackening the alley and sucking boxes into itself. Angel and Cordelia spun around just as the black hole grew quickly and pulled them in. They didn't even have a chance to react; one minute they were bickering about Cordelia's usefulness and the next they were being swallowed up by a giant….blob. 

When they came to they were surrounded on all sides by thick cushions of darkness. Angel put his hand out in front of his face but even his sensitive vampire seeing didn't pick up the outline of his hands. He heard Cordelia whimper to the side of him and tried to figure out which side it was. 

"Angel? Where are you?" Cordy called. 'The right' Angel thought, moving cautiously in the direction of Cordelia's voice. 

"I'm here, just keep talking, I think I know where you are" Angel announced sidling over to the right; being careful where he stepped. 

"Oh God, Angel what happened? One minute we were just talking and the next- It was like when I got sucked into Pylea, except then I felt something. Like there was a portal there or something. This time I didn't feel anything and- OUCH! That was my hand!" Cordelia yelled, snatching her hand back and holding it before her protectively. 

At that moment it was like someone had just flipped on an overhead light and the space around them was flooded with glaring brightness. Angel blinked rapidly to adjust to the new lighting and looked over at Cordelia, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor. She stared up at him and shrugged, signaling that at this point she had no idea what was going on. Angel stooped to help her up and turned around to look at the environment around them. It was vast and never ending in every direction he turned. Very much nondescript too, with a couple of trees, some grass and clouds as the only scenery in site. 

"Man are we screwed" Cordelia said.

*****

TBC


	3. Chapter Three Battle

Title: Untold Feelings   
Chapter: 3 – Battle   
Author: Minnie-May   
Distribution: Archive permission granted to: WNW, Bookish, Gifted. All others please ask.   
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Angel (not even Wesley ;_;) they are all owned by Joss Whedon and the fine folks of Mutant Enemy…..lucky….   
Summary: A new demon forces the AI team to deal with their feelings for each other (W/F, C/A, slight G/F)   
Rating: PG-13   
Feedback: Yes please! Send to: sweet_senshi@hotmail.com   
Notes: This takes place sometime after Billy in Season three of Angel. The events with Darla and Connor have not taken place yet. 

****

UNTOLD FEELINGS

Chapter Three- BATTLE

"OUCH!" The first thing Gunn did when they appeared in whatever dimension they now inhabited was swing blindly, hoping to get whatever it was that had sent them there. Unfortunately his fist had connected, but it wasn't with any demon, it was with Wesley. 

"What the bloody hell was that for?" Wesley asked in aggravation, directing the question to where he thought Gunn would be standing. Everything was pitch black and he couldn't even make out the outlines of his friends. 

"Sorry about that English, got a little jumpy" Gunn apologized, looking around at the thick darkness around him for some sign of the Englishman he had previously hit. 

"Fred? Are you there?" Wesley asked gently, wishing for all the world that he could see to make sure that Fred was ok. Maybe she was still back at the Hyperion, it was a blind hope but it was something. 

"Umm yea, wherever there is. Or would it be here?" Fred asked and Wesley smiled. Well Fred was certainly still with them, which was both good and bad. Good because now he wouldn't have to worry about whether she had made it and bad because it would probably have been a lot safer to just get left behind at the hotel. 

"I'm pretty sure it's 'here'" Wesley commented, towards Fred. 

"Ok enough with the hooked oh phonics, where are we?" Gunn asked, staring around in the pitch darkness. He still couldn't see anything, his eyes had fully adjusted to the lack of light and he still couldn't see an inch in front of him. 

"I'm pretty sure the demon pulled us into an alternate dimension of some sort…apparently the sort without light" Wesley murmured, taking a few cautious steps in the direction of Gunn's voice.

"You mean the makeup demon?" Gunn asked, listening to the sounds of Wesley moving blindly in the dark.

"That would be the Marekiora demon, and yes, that would be the one" Wesley said, trying not to let the hint of aggravation into his voice as he spoke. It was bad enough being trapped in another dimension without light by a demon that wanted to suck the life out of you without having to listen to Gunn refer to it as 'the make up demon'. 

Wesley inched forward another couple inches when he suddenly felt some kind of presence on his left. He turned quickly, ready to defend himself and somehow managed to trip and fall over. It was that moment that the lights decided to blare on, showing Wesley sprawled on top of Fred, and Gunn standing approximately two inches from the two of them. Wesley blinked to adjust his eyes to the bright light and looked at Fred underneath him. She gave him a faint, embarrassed smile, which was about the time he realized he was _still_ on top of her. 

"Very sorry" Wesley mumbled as he jumped back up. He turned to see Gunn glaring at him like he had somehow planned that. Fred got up and dusted herself off, looking around them at the scarce scenery as she spoke.

"That's ok. At first I thought you were the demon so I thought I was really done for so I guess it was good in a way because it wasn't the demon and I'm still alive- and babbling incoherently. I wish someone would tell me when I was doing that," Fred said blushing as she turned to the two men, who were also staring around themselves.

"Your babbling's cute" Gunn said to Fred, then turned and addressed Wesley. "Not much here is there?"

As Gunn said, the area surrounding them was similar on all sides. Some trees seemed to dot the perimeter but nothing really out of the ordinary. The three were standing on a soft carpet of grass that continued on and on in all directions as far as any of them could see. The sky above was light blue and bright although there was no visible sun anywhere. They could have been anywhere. Granted, a sunless anywhere, but that only narrowed things down by so much. 

"No there certainly isn't" Wesley commented, looking around the place to see if there were any possible weapons they could use to defend themselves with. 'We could always break off tree branches' Wes thought to himself, hoping that there wouldn't be an opportunity to do so. Which was when he noticed the two axes, stuck at odd angles in the grassy growth beneath their feet. "Well that's convenient, here are the axes you had on the table" Wesley announced, pulling them out of the earth and handing one to Gunn.

"Yea I sorta grabbed them when I felt that thing sucking me in-" at this Fred shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. 

"Actually that doesn't make sense though does it? I mean that thing that pulled us in here wasn't what we saw in that book of yours Wesley. The thing in the books was all "grr" and evilly and that thing that pulled us in here was kinda like-" Fred trailed off.

"A big, black blobbly thing?" Gunn put in helpfully. Fred nodded enthusiastically and waited for Wesley to explain.

"Well the demon doesn't actually do the capturing itself. It opens up these dimensional riffs that also have a homing beacon of sorts built in. It'll hone into anything that would be good fodder for the demon and pull it into the riff" Wesley explained as best he knew how.

"So we're 'demon fodder' now? Who else is not liking that idea?" Gunn mumbled, turning the axe in his hand.

"I'm sure it'll be fine" Fred put in. Both Wesley and Gunn turned their heads to face Fred and gave her disbelieving looks. "Well ok not *that * fine but I mean as long as we're just here in this big 'ol grassy field I don't see what we're getting so worked up about. I mean there must be someway back, we just have to figure it out" Fred said, quickly trying to explain herself so that she made sense. She saw the look of understanding pass over Wesley's face and contained a smile that he understood what she was talking about. Gunn shrugged and turned around to scan the perimeter.

"Hey Fred, you know how you said it would be ok just as long as we're here alone?" Gunn asked, his eyes never leaving the point on the perimeter that he had been checking. 

"Yea?" Fred asked, suddenly feeling a knot of worry form in her stomach. She really did not like the tone of Gunn's voice.

"Well I don't think we're alone anymore" Gunn said, turning around and pointing to an army of short little demons that were making their way towards them from across the field.

"Oh" Fred said quietly, "well then maybe I take back that 'fine' thing."

****

"Oh my God, what are those little things? They're like those creepy little hobbits from Lord of the Rings" Cordelia said, jumping behind Angel as soon as the demons came into sight.

"You read Tolken?" Angel asked incredulously, while scanning the area for something that could possibly pass off for a weapon. 

"Who? I saw the movie, remember the one with that little Frodo person? Gunn fell asleep and kept snoring and Wesley kept waking him up? Weren't you there?" Cordelia asked, glancing at Angel as he strode over to one of the trees nearby and broke off a huge branch, testing it to see if it would make a good weapon.

"I must have been in Thailand…" Angel trailed off, suddenly reminded of the reason he had spent the summer in another country, trying to work out his feelings. But it didn't matter about that now, all that mattered was that he and Cordy got out of this one alive. He broke off another branch from the tree, this one considerably smaller, and handed it to Cordelia.

"Oh yea, that's right. Sorry, must have forgotten about that. I'm so used to having you around and all. Although speaking of Buffy, it really wouldn't hurt to have her around at the moment" Cordelia said, watching as the little gremlin looking things gained on them. 

Minutes later there were dozens of the small creatures attacking from all sides. Angel swung the heavy branch like a baseball bat and hit two of the creatures, knocking them into the ones behind them and creating a mini domino effect. Cordelia, surprisingly, was getting some good hits in too. A small creature charged towards her, sharp claws at the ready, and Cordelia smashed the bat into it's face, sending it spiraling backwards. Another one came right on it's heels and Cordelia was ready for that one to, turning slightly and bunting it out of her way. Angel bashed into three more, sending them stumbling back into the crowd and turned to look over at Cordelia.

"Your surprisingly good at this" Angel commented, grunting slightly from the effort of throwing a gremlin that had almost latched onto Cordelia.

"Well you know I played softball in middle school. Of course it was more of a popularity thing and we never really won any games, but I did learn how to swing" and as if to accentuate her point she bashed another demon thing. 

Angel could see that Cordelia was wearing down fast though; her swings were getting less and less forceful and the demons were getting closer and closer. 'We're going to need to retreat' Angel thought, scanning the area for somewhere they could hide and possibly rest. His eyes came to rest upon the trunk of a huge tree that had fallen over. He knew that it wasn't the best hiding place available but it was the only one that he saw within running distance. 

Grabbing Cordelia's elbow he used his other arm to pull back the branch and smash it into the nearest demon. The little creature went flying back, knocking into a row of them behind him and clearing a small path for Cordelia and Angel to escape through. As soon as they had escaped the circle of demons they sprinted towards the fallen trunk. Cordelia was running with all of her energy, her lungs struggling to pull in air. Her legs were burning and the world around her was getting fuzzy, but she still felt as if Angel was pulling her along. Angel put his hand on the trunk and vaulted over like someone from the Olympics. Cordelia glared at the spot where he had disappeared over the fallen tree, wishing she could catch her breath to make a scathing remark. He quickly reappeared at the top of the trunk and yanked Cordy up just as the creatures caught up to them. They stood at the base of the trunk, hissing as the two disappeared over the other side. 

"We don't have long" Angel announced once they had dropped to the other side. Cordelia was leaning heavily against the trunk and taking in deep breaths, sucking air into her lungs. Angel, obviously, didn't have to worry about air and began looking around to see how long it would take the creatures to get to this side of the trunk. "It won't take long for them get over here" Angel commented, scanning the area.

"I can't believe this. Why did this happen?" Cordelia asked, shaking her head slightly as Angel broke another branch off the trunk and moved it to his other hand.

"Maybe it has something to do with that demon that we're researching, the one that opens portals?" Angel suggested, trying to get his balance with both weapons.

"Great, I can't believe it. Do I have some kind of sign on my back that says 'suck me through a portal'? Because you'd tell me wouldn't you?" Cordelia asked in aggravation, cupping her cheek in her hand and watching Angel pace. She still hadn't moved from her sitting position against the trunk but her eyes followed Angel as he moved.

"Well the last time it didn't get me too" Angel put in, turning to look at Cordelia. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"Did you notice the creature feature out there Angel? I'm not sure 'let' is an option" Cordelia remarked as the sound of hissing and growling became a little louder. Angel dropped himself into a sitting position beside Cordelia and leaned against the tree.

"Cordy…there's something…" Angel trailed off, losing steam. 'I should tell her I have feelings for her' Angel thought to himself, noticing the way that Cordy had turned her head to the side slightly as she listened. 'I mean it's life or death here' Angel was coaching himself and he was slowly feeling some bravery begin to surface. 

"Cordy I have to tell you that I-" Angel began again, but again trailed off as he stared at Cordelia.

"Angel, what is it?" Cordelia asked, a note of worry entering her voice. "You can tell me." 

The more Angel stared at Cordelia the harder it became to think clearly. This was CORDELIA. The same girl that had pulled him along into her car when he had been seeing Buffy. The same girl that had been so blunt about everything; who spent all of her time on some little popularity contest no one would ever win. The same Cordelia who had, for the last two years, been his best friend. Angel shook his head as he stared at Cordelia and then smiled. 'This is too weird' he thought to himself, getting to a standing position and brushing off.

"Errr Angel? Did I miss something?" Cordelia asked, as Angel pulled her to her feet. Angel shook his head and handed her back the branch she had been using.

"If we get out of this remind me to tell you something" Angel commented, training his eyes on the top of the trunk.

"What? What? What? Tell me now!" Cordelia pouted, hitting Angel lightly on the arm. "You know how impatient I am!"

"I know, I just think it's a discussion that shouldn't be…rushed into" Angel said, becoming more alert as he heard strange sounds coming from the other side of their barricade. 

Suddenly the tree in front of them disintegrated, showing the pack of monsters waiting for them had grown. Behind the small gremlin-like creatures Angel and Cordy had originally been battling there were five or six taller, meaner looking demons. One of them hissed at the two, showing rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth. Cordelia's eyes widened as she looked over at Angel, who lifted both of his branches, readying himself for the attack.

"I can't believe this" she muttered.

****

TBC


	4. Chapter Four Confessions

Title: Untold Feelings   
Chapter: 4 – Confessions   
Author: Minnie-May   
Distribution: Archive permission granted to: WNW, Bookish, Gifted. All others please ask.   
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Angel (not even Wesley ;_;) they are all owned by Joss Whedon and the fine folks of Mutant Enemy…..lucky….   
Summary: A new demon forces the AI team to deal with their feelings for each other (W/F, C/A, slight G/F)   
Rating: PG-13   
Feedback: Yes please! Send to: sweet_senshi@hotmail.com   
Notes: This takes place sometime after Billy in Season three of Angel. The events with Darla and Connor have not taken place yet. 

A/N: Sorry this last chapter took so long to get out! I've been really busy lately and I kept forgetting to have it beta'd ^^;; silly me. Hope you enjoy! Please review so I don't cry ;_;

****

UNTOLD FEELINGS

Chapter Four- CONFESSIONS

"I can't believe this!" Gunn yelled as his axe sunk into another of the demons. The creepy little things seemed to be multiplying before his very eyes. The three were nearly surrounded now and they had only been battling the things for a few minutes.

"We've handled worst" Wesley put in, lopping off the head of one of the creatures and then turning just in time to hit one that had been leaping for his jugular. Wes and Gunn were back to back fighting the demons, trying to drive them back. Well, maybe not exactly back to back since Fred was wedged in between the two of them, using a tree branch to hit anything that came fairly close to her. 

"How is it that I'm still not feeling better about all this English?" Gunn muttered. "Where are they all coming from anyway?" Gunn ducked as one of the demons jumped straight for his head and instead sailed over and hit one that had been trying something similar with Wesley. They hit the ground a foot from Fred who whimpered and flung her branch around wildly.

"I'm not sure but I think that a retreat might not be such a bad idea at the moment" Wesley said, turning briefly to catch a glimpse of Fred beating away a demon that was stuck to her ankle.

"Actually, English I'm right behind you there" Gunn said, grabbing Fred by the arm and dragging her toward a gap in the attack. 

The three took off running as fast as their legs would carry them. Soon the open plains began to turn into a forest, trees springing up as if from nowhere. They stayed to the path in the center of the forest, snapping twigs and dried leaves as they ran. Behind them they could hear the monsters calling and growling, hoping to catch up to them. The three flew around a bend in the path at full speed and almost smashed right up against a wall. 

"There's a wall? Who puts a wall in the forest?" Gunn asked, leaning his hands against his knees and panting. 

"Possibly the same creature that wants to suck out our life force?" Wesley suggested, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. 

"You really know how to put people at ease Wes, anyone ever tell you that?" Gunn muttered sarcastically, looking towards the bend in the path. 

"Where are they?" Fred asked, sounding panicked. She was still holding the branch in front of her to ward off attack and breathing heavily from nerves, never mind the long sprint. Wesley wanted badly to comfort her but there was no time, so instead he merely pulled her back towards the wall where she would be safe. Or safer at least. Wesley stepped up next to Gunn and picked up his axe from where he had rested it against the wall. Both men had their eyes glued to the bend in the forest, waiting for the monsters to show up. 

Slowly, a deep growling noise was admitted and the creatures came into view. Apparently, they had also brought friends that were both bigger and more hideous. The small creatures were dwarfed by larger demons with sharp teeth and long claws. These vicious demons were staring hungrily at the three of them as if it would like nothing more than to eat them. And since they were talking about a big, nasty demon here that was probably not so far from its train of thought.

"Anyone else here thinking 'Oh shit?'" Gunn asked, axe at the ready.

"Bloody hell" Wesley muttered, glancing around and seeing that they were surrounded.

"Well ok if you want to be all British about it" Gunn mumbled. 

Fred, standing behind them, was glad that she had the wall to support her. She didn't think her legs were very good at the moment with the way they were violently trembling. Chunks of memories from her time in Pylea came flooding back, flooring her with all the horrors that had happened to her there. All the horrors, that might be repeating themselves soon enough. The creatures were hovering at the mouth of the bend, making escape in all directions impossible. Fred realized that Wes and Gunn couldn't possibly fight all of the monsters and the knowledge made her lean more heavily on the wall for support. 

"Fred, there's something I need to tell you" Gunn had turned half around so that he had Fred's eye and took a deep breath. "I figure since this could be the last opportunity to tell you there's no use being quiet" Gunn went on. Fred nodded slightly, her head going back and forth between the monsters and Gunn. Wesley turned around so that he was only half watching the creatures before them and gave Gunn a baffled look. Gunn ignored everything that was going on, pulling up every ounce of nerve he had to make the next statement.

"Fred, I like you… a lot. I mean not just friendship like; I've been wanting to ask you out for a long time now but there just hasn't been a good time" Gunn said. Fred's wide set brown eyes grew even wider and she blinked several times as if trying to figure something out.

"Well this is a great time right now" Wesley said sarcastically. The monsters had begun marching forward slowly, obviously enjoying the fear they were instilling in the humans. 

"Hey I said it was because we might not have any other time" Gunn said defensively. Behind the two men Fred was trying to get her thoughts in order because everything was getting all jumbled in her head. Gunn liked her and they were about to be attacked by life sucking monsters. She decided that if they made it back she was going to curl up in her closet and take a nap.

"Actually, while it seems to be confession time I have something to say myself" Wesley began, turning around slightly.

"It's ok, I love you too man" Gunn put in, slapping Wesley lightly on the back. Wes gave him an odd look and turned around more.

"I'm not talking to you Charles, I'm talking to Fred" Wesley put in, turning around so that he was facing her. 

"Oh well…." Gunn trailed off looking rather puzzled. Than the light had obviously turned itself on and he turned to look disbelieving at Wes. "OH". 

"Fred, I'm sure you're a bit, well, overloaded at the moment and I'm really remiss to add to your confusion but-" Wesley began, taking a deep breath and continuing. 'I can do this' Wes thought to himself. "Since you've first appeared in our lives I knew you were a special girl" Wes pressed onward.

"Crazy you mean" Fred said faintly, already sure where this conversation was going.

"Well, there was that too" Wes said with a slight smile. He turned around to see that the monsters were only a few feet away now. If he wanted to get it all out he was going to have to hurry this up, a lot. "For a long time I've cared about you as more than a friend. I'm in love with you, Winifred" Wesley ended, blushing as he realized the word 'love' had just slipped in there. 

Gunn was staring at Wesley as if he had grown another head as the other man turned to face the monsters. Fred's eyes were wider than she thought was even possible as she looked back and forth between her two friends and then back to the demons. Both men were preparing to fight the demons, to the death if necessary.

"Wow" Fred said faintly. "That's a lot to take in on the brink of death" she murmured. 

Wes turned around to smile at her and then turned back in time as the demons lunged themselves at the group. The men got themselves in fighting positions and were ready to take the demons on when suddenly the ground beneath them began to pitch wildly from side to side. The sounds of the demons screaming became fainter and fainter as the world around them faded to black. The next moment light snapped violently back as the three were thrown to the ground. 

"OUCH!" Gunn said, getting up painfully from where he had landed on top of a chair. Wesley groaned from a similar place on the floor and grumbled something slightly incoherent. Fred had landed, and rather gracefully, in the center of the table and was sitting cross-legged looking at her friends. 

"Wesley, are you ok?" Fred asked, sliding her body towards the end of the table and leaning over. Wesley was rubbing his head and slightly favoring his right arm, but otherwise seemed unhurt. 

"Surprisingly, yes" Wesley stated turning his head to take in the lobby of the Hyperion. "We seem to be back now" he stated, as if this were not an immediately obvious thing. 

"Yea" Fred trailed off, "we're back." 

****

"Yahhh!" Cordelia screamed as she slammed down into the alleyway. She noticed that the fall hadn't hurt as much as she guessed and opened one eye slightly to see that she had fell directly on top of Angel. "Opps!" 

It was all very confusing; one moment they had been fighting demons and the next they were back in the alley where they had gotten pulled into that strange dimension. It was a good thing though because they had been losing something awful, one of the demons had gotten a hold of Cordelia while Angel tried to beat him off. She thought they were both dead for sure. 

"We're back!" she said happily, throwing herself flesh against Angel in a huge hug. Angel groaned slightly, he had hit the alley hard and he was pretty sure that one of his ribs was cracked. Having Cordelia throwing herself on him wasn't exactly the best situation, health wise. 

"Your heavy" he groaned, pushing her up slightly. Cordelia grinned at him and then swatted his arm playfully.

"You better watch it mister, I might not decided to get up" Cordelia said, leaning forward slightly to smile evilly at Angel. 

"I take it back, you're light as a feather Cor" Angel groaned, trying to shift his weight underneath her and not seem too noticeable. 

Suddenly a bright light glared in both of their eyes and they turned around to see someone pointing the beam of a flashlight in their direction. Angel squinted in the light and could make out a male form in dark attire. 

"You two AGAIN?" the voice said, dropping the flashlight so it became visible it was the officer from earlier. 

Cordelia became suddenly and humiliatingly aware of what she was wearing. Not to mention the position she was in with Angel, she knew immediately what the officer was thinking.

"I think you two had better come with me down to the station" the officer said, making a motion with his flashlight. 

"This is so humiliating" Cordelia muttered.

****

The silence in the Hyperion lobby was thick with embarrassment as the three silently arranged chairs and books. The three of them crashing down had pushed over several piles of books that were now scattered all over the floor, not to mention the chairs that Wes and Gunn had landed on. Fred was going about the cleaning with a mechanical sort of calm, not meeting either man's eyes. When she and Gunn went to pick up the same book she jumped back and grabbed another one instead. No one had said anything since they had gotten back and Fred was not going to be the one to break the silence. 

The silence was finally broken by the loud sound of a door banging shut. Angel and Cordelia walked into the room, both of them limping slightly. Angel had obviously received some kind of blow to the leg but Cordelia was limping because of the tall, hooker like boots that she was wearing. In fact, Fred noted looking Cordy up and down, the whole outfit pretty much screamed 'I'm an enormous slut'. Which wasn't really Cordy's style. 

Beside her she heard Gunn choke and Wesley sputter, obviously both had noticed the outfit too.

"You say anything and I'll kill you" Cordelia said dangerously, sitting on the steps to pull the boots off her aching feet.

"Right" Wesley said, trying with little success to pull his eyes off of Cordelia. "Where have you two been?" he addressed to Angel.

"Besides the street corner" Gunn put in. The boot Cordelia threw at him barely missed his head and he refrained from making any other comments after that.

"The police station actually…twice" Angel said, clearing his throat before saying the second part. The Englishman raised his eyebrows but didn't press the issue. To be honest, Wes wasn't even sure he wanted to know. 

"We got the police files on those missing kids…and then we got sucked into a portal into another dimension where we were attacked by demons. Then we got thrown back" Angel explained, giving them the very simple version of what happened. 

"You two got pulled into a portal too?" Fred asked, sounding confused. 

"Too?" Angel asked, a puzzled expression on his face as he looked at Wes and Gunn for explanations. 

"Yes well we were pulled into another dimension as well" Wesley put in, looking over at the way that Fred was slowly sliding toward the staircase. 

"With a bunch of creepy looking demon-y things" Gunn put in, nodding towards the two axes they had put back in the case. Wesley watched as Fred disappeared quietly up the steps before anyone noticed. He wondered if she was going back up to her room to hide, like she had done when they had gotten back from Pylea. He tried to cram down his worry to listen to the conversation the others were still having. 

"-don't get why we came back" Angel was saying, looking pointedly at Wesley. Wes took a deep breath and began to explain the theory that he had been formulating as they cleaned.

"Well, since the demon feeds off the energy of unrequited love I'm almost positive that Gunn and I both declaring our feelings for Fred made it impossible for the demon to hold us in it's dimension anymore. From what I heard from you it looks like the declarations weakened it so much that it let go of everyone it had pulled in" Wesley explained, setting a chair upright and sitting down in it. Cordelia and Angel's eyes went wide when they realized the feelings of both men. Cordy had no idea that Gunn cared about Fred also, this could make things awkward. Then another thought struck Cordy that she had to give voice too.

"Then why were Angel and I pulled into the portal?" Cordy asked, looking at Wesley curiously. Wes took one look at the expression of horror on Angel's face and decided that maybe the truth wasn't always the best thing to go with in every situation.

"Well I suppose it could have been a mistake, we weren't dealing with an overly bright demon" Wesley said, catching the 'I owe you one' look in Angels eyes. 

Cordy nodded, accepting this explanation as making more sense, even though she had this gut feeling that it wasn't the truth. But there was no way that she was going there tonight. Searching and finding both boots she walked up to Gunn and asked him to take her home, pulling him towards the door as she talked. With a quick wave at her two friends she disappeared out of sight behind the closing door. For a long moment the lobby was once again covered in silence. Angel cleared his throat and turned to Wesley.

"So….Fred-" he began, in a conversational tone.

"So, Cordelia-" Wes shot back. 

The two men stood in the lobby in silence.

****

It was three hours later before Fred finally crept down the winding stairs of the Hyperion towards the lobby. She had heard the voices as Gunn and Cordelia left, and then a short time later as Angel took a shower and went into his room. Fred had been counting on the fact that Wesley would want to stick around to do some research or work on translating some old prophecy. She really needed to talk to him about what had happened and she hadn't wanted the others around when she did. 

She knocked on the door to Wesley's office and peered around the door, seeing him look up from the book he was studying. Fred was suddenly hit with memories from when Wesley was infected with Billy's blood. She looked down at her outfit; a pair of jeans splattered with white paint from when they had painted over her room and a loose T-shirt. It was nothing like the sundress she had been wearing that day. Pushing the thoughts of Billy aside, she walked quietly into the room and shut the door behind her. Although there was really no one around to come intruding on their conversation anyway.

Fred seated herself in one of the chairs across from Wesley's desk as he pushed the book aside and leaned towards her on his elbows. Fred took a deep breath and began counting pie, silently of course, to calm herself down. She really, really wasn't good at this. 

"Something you wanted Fred?" Wesley asked quietly, trying not to prod her the wrong way. She looked like a frightened puppy and he feared the wrong word would send her back up the stairs into her room. 

"It's about what you said when we were….well where we were. 'Cuse I'm not exactly sure that dimension we were in had a name, or maybe it did but we just didn't know it so I'm not really sure what to call it" Fred babbled, her cheeks turning bright red. She really, really wasn't good at this.

"Oh….that" Wesley said, leaning back in his chair and eyeing Fred cautiously again. The way he was staring at her was making her even more nervous so that she squirmed in her chair. "I understand if you don't feel the same way. I'm very sorry if my declaration made you uncomfortable and-" Wes said awkwardly, far too accustomed to being turned down. 

"Ohh no!" Fred interrupted him, forcing Wesley to look up from the point on his desk that he was staring at to gaze at the young Texan girl. "I just meant, well it didn't make me uncomfortable. Well ok a little bit if you want to be honest, and I think it's good to start relationships out with honesty" Fred rambled, wishing desperately that she could just get out what she wanted to say. 

"Relationship?" Wesley asked in shock. Fred blushed bright crimson and continued on with her speech, meandering as it was. 

"I know we're good friends and all that and I wouldn't want to ruin that but for awhile now I've been kinda thinking of you differently. Kinda like how I thought about Angel only, a little more sanely and I've been having them too. Feelings, that is because just saying 'I've been having them' makes it sounds like I've been having cramps or something. Which I haven't….." Fred was mortified, but she was finding it really hard to stop talking once she had begun. 'Oh God, I'm making a fool of myself' Fred thought as she stared at Wesley across the desk. 

For a few moments Wes stared at her, his expression unreadable and then he broke down and began laughing. Fred turned bright red, sure that he was laughing at her. He looked so happy though and soon Fred felt her lips curling into a smile. A few moments later Fred was laughing as well, holding onto her side when it became painful. Finally the laughter died down and left the two of them stared at each other from across the expanse of wood separating them. Wesley smiled and leaned forward again.

"I'll be honest I really didn't think things would go this way" he said, staring into Fred's eyes.

"Gunn's a good friend, that's it. You're…" Fred blushed brightly as she trailed off. Wesley smiled at her but didn't push her to finish the sentence. Fred stared down at her legs for a few moments, trying to compose herself. 'We sound like a bad romance movie' Fred thought to herself, looking up and catching Wesley's eyes. She felt something faintly flutter in the pit of her stomach and realized it wasn't nerves but happiness.

"I'm hungry" Fred announced, rising from the chair and walking over towards Wesley. "Want some ice cream?" she asked, nodding towards the door. Wesley got up from his chair and closed the book in front of him.

"Ice cream would be great," Wesley said softly, leading the way out the door of the office and towards the main door. He didn't think he needed to tell Angel that they were going, he was probably busy with his customary brooding. 

Wesley opened the door for her and then followed her out, closing the door behind them. As they were walking toward the street and the small ice cream place Wesley knew was nearby he felt Fred slip her hand in his. 

Maybe it hadn't been such a bad night after all.

THE END 


End file.
